ShortPixel is an amazing online Image and PDF Compression Tool that makes web pages that take a long time to load actually faster to load and display information. Nobody likes to wait for web pages to load, and the ShortPixel compressor fits in exactly for this reason. It offers many types of image compression and actually optimizes all kinds of pictures, regardless of type or size.
How does it Work?
The ShortPixel process of compressing images varies from the technique used by other image compressors out there. It actually uses an advanced image compressor to resize animated GIFs, PDFs and normal images.
The use of this plugin can be significantly easier in case you have a WordPress blog. When you install the WordPress plugin of ShortPixel on your WP blog, it automatically optimizes pictures such as animated GIFs, PNG, JPEG, JPG as well as Tutorial PDF files and Guides. It carries out the optimization irrespective of how they are uploaded to a WordPress website.
• If you wish to work with this extension, you have to first login to your admin on WordPress. Use your own admin password and username to do that.
• Next, visit Plugins >> Add New >> “ShortPixel”.
• Install the plugin from ShortPixel and activate the same.
• Click on the “Sign up to ShortPixel” button to create your own ShortPixel account at no cost. Get your API key.
• Then, copy the ShortPixel API key and paste it to the Settings option in ShortPixel. Save the changes.
• Once this is done, type in your own ShortPixel API Key. It will integrate ShortPixel successfully into your WordPress blog.
• Keep in mind that your API key happens to be the basic requirement for successfully running ShortPixel on your blog. When you have optimized some PDF files and images on your blog, you can view their details in then Analytics pages of your ShortPixel account.
How to optimize images with ShortPixel?
It is important then that you keep ShortPixel API key safely stored somewhere, so as to save your own ShortPixel credits and get precise results for the content that you have optimized.
Once you integrate the ShortPixel plugin into your own WordPress blog, you can proceed to optimize pictures into the blog in 3 different ways.
Optimize images automatically
Once you upload a new picture to add it in a post in the WordPress editor, it will be automatically optimized by ShortPixel. Once you upload a picture to WordPress, there are 6 variations created for the same for situations such as image thumbnails.
Thus, you need to be mindful that when you upload 10 pictures in every post, 60 variations of the same will be created automatically. It will thus cost you 60 credits on ShortPixel, in case the compression ratio is equal to or more than 5%. However, no ShortPixel credits will be charged if your pictures are not optimized more than the 5% ratio.
Optimize images in bulk
It could be that there are hundreds of images uploaded on your blog already. How can they be optimized without getting the existing images removed? With ShortPixel, you can easily save time on this. The extension can optimize the images that exist already in your Media Library, and automatically substitute the ones that are older or not optimized. It might also have copies of older images and replace the same with optimized or new ones. This is a very useful feature, as there could be thousands of non-optimized pictures in your website or blog. Do you need more facts about bulk image optimization? Read this article.
Optimize images upload through FTP
In case you happen to be a web developer and making use of FTP for uploading images to your WP blog, you do not have to worry about image optimization given that ShortPixel carries out the work for you, irrespective of how you carry out image optimization on WordPress.
You might use another tab to work on your own blog while images are optimized by the extension for you. This does not have any negative impact on your blogging.
How should you use it for PDF compression?
Portable Document Files or PDF happens to be an international standard document file format that runs on any OS, including mobile operating system. This is why you can find online guides, eBooks, white papers and reports in the .pdf format.
While making content upgrades on blog by offering PDF files to gather more leads, it can be useful for you to have them optimized. This can allow you to save on monthly bandwidth as well as make the overall user experience much better. Although it does not have a major impact, it still has good enough effect.
Thus, you can optimize files in .PDF format to considerably reduce the size of files. With the ShortPixel PDF Compressor Tool, you can upload as many as 50 files simultaneously. Thus, it will not take a lot of time for you to optimize more than one PDF document online with the help of this tool.
ShortPixel and developer API
In case you have developed a custom software or tool for clients, you may integrate the ShortPixel tool into your own software. There is a Software-as-a-service or SaaS app in ShortPixel. Thus, it operates on Cloud and can be expected to offer higher uptime guarantee. The extension operates on Amazon AWS. It offers various ways to help users optimize their visual content.
• Post-Reducer API – You can shrink images that are not there online. You may call it through POST HTTP call from any coding language. POST request might be done most conveniently via Java.
• Reducer API – You can shrink pictures based on that image’s URL. The picture should be there on the web to be shrunk through API.
• Developer API – It can let you operate custom applications, pair more than one tool and most importantly, develop tools that can optimize offline pictures to serve your own ends.
Other than the Developer API, you may use the ShortPixel technology to develop tools that optimize pictures via the ShortPixel Command Line Tool or the PHP Client Library.
Before your final decision you better try several other solutions like Kraken or TinyPNG/TinyJPG. This is what I have done. And thus I’m pretty sure that ShortPixel is the best image compression tool for me. Don’t forget to use ShortPixel coupon code available here.
